GIFT  OF 
SEELEY  W.  MUDD 

and 

GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN    MEYER  ELSASSER 
DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 
JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.  SARTORI 

to  tin 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


JOHN  FISKE 


• 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


ftPK  1  9  t33* 
j{  16  1..J9 


6CT 


A 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  HESSIANS. 


CONTRIBUTED    BY 

JOSEPH  G.  ROSENGARTEN. 


Reprinted  from 

"  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography, 
July,  1899. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

1899. 

93408 


A  DEFENCE  OF  THE  HESSIANS. 


[In  a  pamphlet  printed  in  Melsungen  and  published  in  Cassel  in 
187g^  under  the  title  of  "  Frederick  th~e~  Second  and  Modern  History, 
a  Contribution  to  the  Denial  of  the  Fairy  Stories  as  to  the  Pretended 
Sale  of  Soldiers  by  Hessian  Princes,  with  a  New  View  of  Seume's  State- 
ments," there  is  quite  a  full  defence  of  the  Hessians  and  their  service  in 
America  under  the  British  flag.  As  it  is  a  second  and  enlarged  edition, 

(it  must  have  found  readers,  although  I  do  not  think  I  have  ever  seen 
any  notice  of  this  somewhat  novel  view.  It  may  not  be  without  interest 
to  students  of  history  to  have  a  brief  summary  and  statement  of  the  de- 
fence of  the  Hessians  and  their  princes,  who  ever  since  our  Revolu- 
tionary War  have  been  the  subjects _of  obloquy  and  treated  with  lofty 
scorn  and  contempt.] 

5& 

H  THE  Seven  Years'  War  had  enlisted  England's  rich  help 

in  men  and   money.     A  powerful  army  of  one  hundred 
X        thousand  men,  composed  of  English  soldiers,  of  twenty- 
four  thousand  Hessians,  of  Hanoverians  and  Brunswickers, 
Ik*  .  .  .  .  . 

enabled  Frederick  of  Prussia  to  continue  a  resistance  which 

otherwise  he  could  not  have  maintained  for  two  years.  The 
North  German  states  were  not  Prussian  vassals,  but  allies  of 
England  for  a  hundred  years,  on  the  basis  of  common  politi- 
cal aims.  Hesse,  as  the  stronghold  of  the  Protestants  of 
North  Germany,  had  been  in  close  alliance  with  England  at 
a  time  when  Brandenburg  was  little  thought  of.  The  an- 
cient military  glory  of  Hesse  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
was  so  great  that  Gustavus  Adolphus  on  landing  in  Ger- 
many had  asked  for  a  Hessian,  Colonel  Falkenburg,  as 
military  governor  of  Magdeburg.  For  a  century  and  a 
half  Hessian  soldiers  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the 
English  troops,  mainly  against  France.  That  they  should 
again  act  together  in  America  was  not  more  surprising 

3 


; 


4  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

than  that  the  Sardinian  Italians  should  cooperate  with  the 
French  in  the  Crimea.  The  same  statesmanlike  wisdom 
was  shown  in  Cassel  and  in  Turin,  and  led  to  a  like  result. 
The  little  Hesse  of  1866  must  not  be  confused  with  the  old 
Hesse,  which  was  an  important  factor  in  German  politics. 
In  almost  every  war  of  the  last  century  Hesse  had  taken 
part  with  its  army  of  twenty-four  thousand  men, — an  im- 
portant contingent  at  that  time  and  one  that  made  Hesse 

(the  object  of  many  invitations  to  close  alliance.  In  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  England  joined  Frederick  the  Great, 
so,  too,  did  the  Hessians  and  the  other  German  allies.  It 

/fared  badly  with  Hesse, — repeatedly  it  was  overrun  and 
often  held  by  the  French,  while  its  army  was  serving  in 

'^"Westphalia  and  Hanover;  the  Elector  died  away  from  his 
home  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son ;  none  of  the  eastern 
provinces  of  Prussia  suffered  like  Hesse. 

The  Elector  Frederick  had  been  educated  on  the  Rhine, 
and  shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Seven  Years'  "War 
was  the  guest  of  the  Archbishop  Elector  of  Cologne.  Politi- 
cal honors  have  been  made  the  reason  of  the  Elector  of 
Saxony's  change  of  his  Protestant  faith — that  he  might 
secure  the  throne  of  Catholic  Poland.  Vanity  and  want  of 
patriotic  pride  have  led  German  princesses  to  win  Russian 
husbands  at  the  sacrifice  of  their  Protestant  faith,  while  no 
Russian  princess  has  ever  given  up  her  church  for  the  sake 
of  a  foreign  husband.  Frederick  of  Hesse  changed  his  re- 
ligion from  purely  personal  reasons  and  in  perfect  honesty. 
It  was  long  concealed  from  his  father,  a  strong  Protestant, 
ruling  the  church  in  the  spirit  of  his  ancestor  Maurice.  An 
accident  revealed  the  secret,  and  violent  was  the  anger  of 
the  sturdy  Protestant  father.  At  first  he  wanted  to  exclude 
his  son  from  the  succession,  but  this  required  an  appeal  to 
the  Emperor,  who  naturally  would  refuse.  The  elder  prince 
then,  with  the  approval  of  his  Parliament,  made  a  close  alli- 
ance with  England,  and  this  added  to  the  security  of  his 
son's  English  marriage.  The  eldest  son  of  that  marriage, 
later  on  Elector  William,  was  to  rule  in  Hanau,  free  from 
any  influence  of  his  Catholic  father,  under  the  protection  of 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  5 

an  English  garrison,  so  that  his  home  was  temporarily  sepa- 
rated from  Hesse,  and  put  under  strict  protection  of  its 
church  rights.  Parliament,  people,  and  army  all  took  an 
oath  to  abide  by  this,  and  Elector  Frederick  always  kept  his 
Catholic  predilections  strictly  personal,  never  influencing 
the  old  Protestant  rule ;  indeed,  out  of  his  own  purse  he 
completed  the  Reformed  church  in  Cassel  begun  by  his 
father,  and  endowed  it. 

In  1762  Elector  Frederick  returned  home  at  the  head  of 
the  Hessian  army,  and  Hessian  administration  replaced  that 
of  the  foreign  invaders ;  but  the  treasury  was  empty,  the 
resources  of  the  state  exhausted,  and  the  population  reduced 
one-half.  The  country  had  been  laid  waste.  The  Elector 
declined  all  show,  and  quietly  reoccupied  his  ancestral  cas- 
tle on  January  2,  1763.  The  Parliament  was  summoned, 
and  again  exercised  its  constitutional  rights  to  examine  and 
criticise  the  financial  statements  of  the  government.  These 
showed  that  the  only  resource  for  the  needs  of  the  army 
was  the  claim  against  England  for  unpaid  subsidies,  amount- 
ing to  10,143,286  thalers.  The  government  was  authorized 
to  reduce  the  army  and  to  apply  any  saving  thus  effected 
for  pressing  civil  needs.  The  representative  in  London 
was  instructed  to  urge  the  prompt  payment  of  the  debt  due 
for  Hessian  forces  in  English  service.  The  matter  was 
warmly  discussed  in  Parliament,  and  only  in  1775  was  the 
debt  discharged  in  part  to  the  amount  of  7,923,283  thalers. 
In  1772  a  short  supply  of  food  led  to  the  establishment  of 
public  warehouses,  where  flour  bought  abroad  was  sold  at 
cost  price. 

The  agricultural  condition,  however,  was  a  very  unfavor- 
able one,  and  in  1775  England  first  broached  a  jenewal  of 
the  old  alliance,  with  a  view  to  the  employment  of  Hessian 
troops  in  the  case  of  war  in  America.  The  project  of 
/American  independence  was  heartily  disapproved  of  in  Ger- 
many  and  even  in  republican  Switzerland.  It  was  turning^ 
colonies  into  rival  states.  Then,  too,  in  seeking  an  alliance 
with  France  and  Spain,  America  was  turning  to  the  hered- 
itary enemies  of  Germany.  The  course  of  the  English 


6  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

Whigs  in  endorsing  the  American  rebels  was  condemned 
as  a  mere  party  move  against  the  Tory  ministry,  crippling 
the  government.  Moser,  the  historian,  represented  the  cur- 
rent opinion  of  Germany  when  he  described  the  Yankees  as 
perjured  subjects.  The  modern  and  advanced  German  pre- 

\fers  Mirabeau  to  Moser, — vice  to  virtue.  The  threats  of 
that  French  agitator  against  Germany  have  no  more  histor- 
ical value  than  the  declamation  of  Victor  Hugo  during  the 
Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870-71.  Moser  s  was  the  general 
opinion  of  his  time.  As  to  the  English  offer,  the  Elector 
was  personally  against  taking  part  in  the  war :  he  wanted 
peace  to  restore  prosperity  to  the  land,  to  which  he  was  con- 
tributing freely  out  of  his  own  means,  while  he  took  almost 
nothing  for  his  own  wants.  He  objected  to  sending  the 
army,  composed  almost  entirely  of  his  own  subjects,  far 
away,  and  if  he  had  anticipated  a  seven  years'  struggle  he 
would  never  have  consented.  His  Parliament  was  anxious 
to  hasten  the  payment  of  the  balance  due  by  England,  which 
had  only  of  late  quickened  its  remittances.  Without  a  new 

/  English  alliance  it  would  be  long  before  the  country  could 
recover  from  the  exhaustion  of  the  Seven  Years'  War. 
Prussia  had  recouped  its  exhausted  treasury  by  the  booty  of 
the  Polish  division  in  1772.  England's  offer  could  not  be 
refused.  At  that  time  Hesse  was  tempted  by  an  offer  of  a 
share  of  the  Polish  treasure  in  return  for  a  loan  of  Hessian 
troops  to  Prussia,  which  it  sturdily  rejected. 

As  far  back  as  1757  the  King  of  Prussia  had  asked  leave 
to  buy  eight  hundred  Hessian  recruits  to  take  the  place  of 
that  number  of  Saxon  Catholic  prisoners  of  war,  who  had 
been  forced  into  the  Prussian  service  to  turn  against  their 
own  king  and  country  and  had  all  escaped;  but  the  old 

i  Elector  of  Hesse  peremptorily  refused  permission.  Prussia 
denounced  the  treaty  by  which  the  Hessian  army  served 
as  allies  of  the  British,  but  wanted  to  buy  the  individual 
soldiers  as  so  many  slaves.  The  young  Elector  openly  dis- 
approved the  partition  of  Poland  and  refused  any  offer  from 
Prussia.  The  feeling  through  Hesse-Cassel  was  strongly 
against  Prussia  and  just  as  strongly  friendly  to  England,  and 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  7 

this  was  clearly  shown  in  the  debates  and  action  of  the  Hes- 
sian Parliament  and  in  the  reports  of  the  Hessian  represen- 
tative in  London,  Schlieffen.  The  request  of  England  was 
finally  agreed  to.  The  Hessian  troops  went  to  America 

fwith  the  full  approval  of  their  country,  in  accordance  with 
the  wishes  of  its  legal  representatives,  in  joyful  courage,  bent 
on  winning  new  laurels  at  the  side  of  their  old  allies. 

The  first  meeting  with  the  enemy,  soon  after  the  landing 
of  the  first  Hessian  division  under  Lieutenant-General 
Heister,  was  a  glorious  one  for  his  troops.  At  Flatbush 
"Washington's  army  was  driven  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet 
almost  to  destruction,  most  of  the  American  leaders  cap- 
tured, and  nearly  all  their  flags  taken.  The  Hessian  gren- 
adiers who  at  Minden  had  attacked  the  French  cavalry  with 
the  bayonet  had  lost  nothing  of  the  vigor  they  had  shown 
in  the  Seven  Years'  War. 

The  war  might  have  been  finished  in  one  campaign  and 
the  loss  of  the  Colonies  prevented,  for  at  least  two-thirds  of 
the  population  of  America  looked  on  old  England  as  the 
true  source  of  liberty,  but  were  coerced  by  the  rebellious 
minority.  But  the  English  commander,  Lord  Howe,  was  a 
Whig,  and  forbade  Heister's  pursuit  and  use  of  his  victory. 
Howe  ordered  defensive  lines  to  be  fortified  against  the 
broken  force  of  Washington's  army.  This  turned  the 
tables.  Washington  enlisted  a  new  army,  largely  by  the 
promise  of  liberal  head-money  to  recruits,  and  France  and 
Spain  appeared  on  the  scene.  The  Yankees  alone  never 
could  have  achieved  their  independence.  The  Colonies 
then  had  only  two  and  a  half  million  white  population. 
The  Americans  of  to-day  are  the  children  of  later  immi- 
grants, to  a  great  extent  the  grandchildren  of  the  very  men 
who  resisted  the  causeless  rebellion,  and  even  of  those  who 
fought  against  it.  The  anger  of  the  Yankees  wreaked  itself 
on  their  adversaries  by  publishing  the  greatest  untruths, 
the  shallowest,  idlest  lies,  that  at  first  were  unnoticed  in 
Germany,  but  gradually,  especially  after  the  French  Revo- 
lution, passed  into  German  reactionary  literature.  These 
are  now  the  stock  in  trade  of  modern  historical  writers. 


8 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 


i 


In  spite  of  clear  proof  from  the  Hessian  archives,  these 

vamped-up  stories  are  repeated  and  renewed. 

S.  England  paid  into  the  Hessian  state  treasury,  not  to  the 

Elector  himself,  between  1776  and  1783,  besides  indirect 

expenses,  21,276,778  thalers  as  subsidy  money,  and  of  this 

2,203,003  thalers  were  arrears  from  the  Seven  Years'  War. 

Of  this  amount  part  went  to  pay  the  difference  between 

the  war  footing  and  the  peace  footing  expense  of  the  Hes- 

sian army  for  eight  years.     The  soldiers  received  the  high 

[  English  pay  without  deduction,  often  in  gold,  as  is  shown 

\by  reports,  pay  lists,  and  money  accounts.     The  exceptions 

to  the  advantage  of  the  war-chest  were  very  rare,  and  for 

these  the  troops  gained  in  a  larger  proportion  at  home. 

(  The  wealth  of  the  Hessian  army  in  America  is  shown  by 

the  fact  that  in  the  first  three  and  a  half  years  of  the  war 

the  common  soldiers  sent  home  through  the  regular  chan- 

/  nels  some  600,000  thalers,  and  at  least  two  or  even  three 

\  times  that  amount  by  mail  or  other  facilities.     The  idea  of 

a  sale  of  these  troops  is  absurd  and  ridiculous. 

*?.  Just  as  in  other  wars  where  allied  troops  serve  together, 

so   did  the  Hessians  fight  on  the  side  of  the  English  in 

America,  with  the  advantage  of  not  serving  in  unwholesome 

climates.     They  served  under  their  own  officers  and  were 

/  subject  only  to   Hessian  laws  of  war.     The  troops  could 

1  not  be  divided  unless  in  case  of  necessity  ;  the  supremacy 

1  of  the  Hessian  state  was  never  touched.     If  there  were  a 

"  sale,"  then  there  must  have  been  a  re-sale  to  their  own 

country.    At  the    beginning   of   the  American   war    the 

Elector  recommended  to  his  Parliament  the  establishment 

of  a  war  fund  of  4,549,925  thalers  for  future  state  require- 

ments.    His  wisdom  secured  a  thoroughly  good  govern- 

ment, and  at  his  death  a  national  reserve  fund  of  12,473,000 

thalers,  while  he  had  relieved  the  people  of  taxes  to  the 

amount  of  8,255,000  thalers,  practically  a  saving  of  20,- 

000,000  for  the  people.     All  he  asked  in  return  was   an 

increase  of  his  civil  list  of  half  of  one  per  cent.    He  had 

found  the  country  a  waste;  he  left  it  a  blooming,  prosperous 

garden;  he  deserved  the  praise  of  Miiller,  the  historian,  and 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  9 

he  earned  the  love  of  his  people,  who  in  his  lifetime  made 
voluntary  gifts  for  a  memorial  to  testify  the  gratitude  of 
his  country  for  his  services. 

^  A  '  o  .  At  this  time  Frederick  the  Second  [of  Prussia]  made  an- 
other effort  to  draw  Hesse  within  the  influence  of  his  policy. 
In  1779  he  asked  the  Elector  to  send  troops  against  a 
threatened  Austrian  advance  from  Belgium,  then  still  under 
the  Hapsburgs,  so  as  to  leave  Prussia  a  free  hand  against  its 
old  enemy,  and  Prussia  promised  to  pay  subsidy  for  the 
force  thus  helping  it  against  Austria.  The  Elector  was 
supported  by  his  Parliament  in  refusing  thus  to  be  tempted 
to  violate  his  loyalty  to  the  Emperor  Joseph,  for  whom  he 
1  had  always  felt  profound  respect. 

*-,.j  — ^ -.  'Frederick  the  Second  was  stirred  to  great  anger,  as  he 
had  made  the  Elector  the  honorary  colonel  of  the  Prussian 
regiment  stationed  at  Wesel,  and  wrote  to  Voltaire :  "  If  the 
Elector  were  of  his  way  of  thinking,  he  would  not  have 
hired  his  troops  to  England,  but  to  Prussia;  but  the  Elector 
was  a  Catholic  and  therefore  loyal  to  the  Emperor."  His 
real  anger  was  thus  confusing  England  with  the  Catholic 
powers.  But  it  was  a  great  good  fortune  that,  thanks  to  the 
wise  policy  of  its  sensible  Elector,  Hesse  was  spared  a  renewal 
of  the  horrors  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  which  its  unquiet 
neighbor  would  have  gladly  invited,  to  its  own  great  injury. 

'•>•  <°*tv<£       /  '  ?  The  contrast  between  the  two  cousins   and  namesakes 
was  a  very  marked  one,  for  Elector  Frederick  was  an  ortho- 
\  dox  Christian,  King  Frederick  a  follower  of  Voltaire.    The 
Swiss  historian,  Miiller,  republican  as  he  was,  wrote  from 
Cassel  to  his  Swiss  home  in  terms  of  strong  praise  of  the 
Hessian  corps  of  officers,  of  their  scientific  and  social  cult- 
ure ;  the  Hessians,  he  said,  are  sound,  honest  folk,  warlike 
/  and  courageous, — all  the  peasants  have  served  in  the  army, 
I  and  in  every  village  the  men  show  the  good  effects  in  their 
)  manly  strength  and  love_of  discipline.     Almost  every  one 
can  speak  of  his  own  or  his  father's  service  in  Sicily,  in  the 
Morea,  in  Scotland,  Flanders,  Hungary,  or  Germany,  under 
Morisini  or  Prince  Eugene  or  Maurice  of  Saxony  or  Ferdi- 
nand of  Brunswick. 


10  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

'3  And  now  in  the  New  World  the  Hessians  showed  their  old 

(valor  and  discipline, — one  regiment  surrounded  in  a  forest 
by  eight  thousand  Americans  fought  its  way  out.  After  a 
march  of  five  hundred  miles,  without  bread  or  wine  or 
brandy,  almost  barefooted,  in  burning  heat,  after  fording 
seven  streams,  often  up  to  the  neck  in  water,  the  Hessians 
/  fought  so  well  that  Lord  Cornwallis  praised  them  beyond 
\  all  his  other  troops ;  and  such  a  preference  from  the  British 
commander  reconciled  his  Hessians  to  all  their  trials.  JMiil- 
ler,  as  a  faithful  historian,  loved  to  record  their  brave  deeds. 
He  says  the  country  is  poor,  but  that  is  due  to  the  never 
ending  German  wars.  The  Seven  Years'  "War  had  left 
the  country  waste  to  a  degree  that  the  Swiss,  always  living 
in  peace,  could  hardly  realize.  But  the  Hessians  are  indus- 
trious, and  the  country  flourished  in  1781  under  the  Elector 
Frederick,  a  man  of  kindly  nature  and  the  best  intentions, 
and  yet  many  foreigners  criticise  him  unfairly.  Why  should 
a  Swiss  object  to  a  crowned  head  ?  The  government  is  as 
well  suited  to  the  country  as  a  republic  to  Switzerland,  and 
even  there  no  one  has  more  personal  freedom  than  the  Hes- 
sian citizen.  People  and  country  are  unusually  attractive. 
No  men  were  ever  finer  than  the  Hessian  soldiers ;  they  are 
worthy  of  their  ancestors,  made  famous  by  Tacitus.  It  is 
thus  that  a  republican  describes  the  country  of  this  excel- 
lent prince,  who  had  healed  the  wounds  inflicted  by  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  encouraged  arts  and  sciences,  and  sup- 
ported, when  he  did  not  found,  many  charitable  institutions, 
and  not  only  did  not  enrich  himself,  but  during  and  through 
the  American  war  was  able  to  relieve  his  country  of  many 
millions  of  taxes,  and  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  large  re- 
serve for  the  expenses  of  the  government.  The  adminis- 
tration was  so  painfully  careful  that,  in  spite  of  the  interrup- 
tion of  Napoleon's  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  the  accounts  were 
so  kept  as  to  show  satisfactorily  just  what  proportion  of  the 
revenue  belonged  to  the  nation  and  what  to  the  sovereign. 

All  that  Hesse  has  of  material  as  well  as  intellectual  ad- 
vantages it  owes  to  Elector  Frederick,  from  hospitals  to  art 
galleries.  In  his  day  the  visitor  might  think  that  Cassel 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  1 1 

was  equal  to  Sparta  and  Athens.  He  died  all  too  soon  for 
the  honorable  love  of  his  faithful  subjects.  He  never  ceased 
to  mourn  over  the  long  absence  of  his  army,  his  dear  sub- 
jects. Instead  of  a  year's  service,  it  lasted  for  nine  years, 
although  the  last  years  of  the  war  were  comparatively  free 
from  bloodshed,  and  spent  in  occasional  skirmishes  and  in 
marching  to  and  fro  through  vast  regions.  The  Elector 
/  often  wanted  to  put  an  end  to  the  alliance  with  England, 
but  his  ministers  and  his  Parliament  held  firmly  to  it.  He 

|  did  insist  on  replacing  the  losses  of  the  Hessians  by  foreign 

r  j          " 

ejilistments,  to  which  he  had  once  so  patriotically  objected, 
but  now  men  from  beyond  his  borders  poured  in  with  the 
hope  of  joining  the  Hessian  army  and  thus  seeing  the  won- 
derland, America.  Anxiety,  years  of  longing  and  quiet 
grief,  weighed  on  his  noble  heart,  so  that  a  few  months  after 
the  return  of  the  last  of  his  soldiers  he  died  suddenly.  He 
saw  once  more  the  old  victorious  flags  that  had  waved  in 
triumph  at  Minden  and  Crefeld,  at  Flatbush,  "White  Plains, 
Fort  Washington,  and  Gildford  [sic]  Court-House;  he  saw 
them  once  again  and  died. 

The  circumstances  of  the  enlistment  of  the  Hessian  troops 
may  be  explained  thus :  German  and  other  European  coun- 
tries had  for  centuries  strengthened  their  armies  by  enlisting 
men.  Hesse,  and  later  Brandenburg  Prussia,  made  service 
compulsory,  and  thus,  in  the  years  that  followed  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  filled  their  armies  with  their  own  subjects. 
Still,  voluntary  enlistments  continued  and  do  so  still.  But 
no  country  cared  for  the  enlisted  man  and  for  his  protection 
from  acts  of  violence  at  the  hands  of  officers  as  Hesse-Cas- 
sel  did,  and  yet  no  country  has  been  so  much  blamed  for  its 
dealing  with  its  soldiers.  Personally,  the  Elector  was  op- 
posed to  all  enlistments,  both  at  home  and  from  outside, 
and  he  tried  hard  to  limit  it  after  the  close  of  the  Seven 
Years'  War.  When,  however,  in  1777,  the  Hessian  Parlia- 
ment concluded  its  treaty  of  alliance,  which  provided  for 
Hessian  troops  to  serve  in  the  British  army,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  increase  the  force,  and  there  was  a  rush  of  vol- 
unteers from  all  parts  of  Germany,  and  the  Elector  re- 


12  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

published  an  order  of  December  16,  1762,  substantially  as 
follows :  "  Officers  guilty  of  enlisting  men  by  force  or  unfair 
means  will  be  dismissed  the  service;  non-commissioned 
officers  and  privates  for  the  like  offence  will  receive  cor- 
poreal punishment,  and  the  orders  of  their  superiors  will 
not  protect  them.  Soldiers  enlisted  by  force  or  trick  shall 
be  released  at  once  without  expense  to  them  or  any  charge 
for  food  or  pay,  which  shall  be  collected  from  the  officer 
responsible  for  such  illegal  enlistment." 
/  No  foreign  subject  was  ever  retained  in  the  Hessian  ser- 
vice against  his  will.  All  those  who  voluntarily  enlisted  for 
the  American  war  were,  on  their  return,  regularly  and  hon- 
orably discharged,  and  received  as  a  reward  half  a  month's 
pay  at  the  high  English  rate  as  the  personal  gift  of  the 
Elector.  All  of  this  is  _proved  by  the  official  records. 
During  his  whole  reign  the  Elector  made  a  steadfast  effort 
to  prevent  forcible  enlistment,  and  went  so  far  in  opposition 
to  neighboring  sovereigns,  who  acted  differently,  that  once, 
at  least,  this  led  to  a  formal  declaration  of  war. 

His  conduct  was  met  by  false  reports  industriously 
spread  abroad  to  his  injury.  Frederick  of  Prussia  knew 
that  the  Hessian  government  neither  could  nor  would  allow 
Hessian  subjects  to  be  enlisted  against  their  will  in  foreign 
service.  With  consent  of  the  Parliament,  Hessian  troops 
could  serve  as  allies  for  a  time  regulated  by  treaty  with  any 
friendly  power,  but  the  State  could  never  sell  its  individual 
citizens  into  foreign  service.  King  Frederick  could  never 
introduce  in  Hesse  the  servitude  that  put  his  Brandenburg 
and  Pomeranian  subjects  at  his  beck  and  nod.  As  early  as 
1760  the  Hessian  troops  took  the  oath  under  the  Hessian 
constitution,  but  the  Prussian  and  Brandenburg  people  were 
helplessly  bound  to  the  nobility  and  princes  as  chattels 
down  to  1808,  and  it  was  not  until  1848  that  the  Prussian 
constitution,  as  the  outcome  of  a  revolution,  gave  the  peo- 
ple the  protection  which  the  Hessians  had  always  enjoyed. 
The  Elector  was  libelled  as  no  prince  was  ever  before  in 
history.  He  spent  freely  and  largely  of  his  own  private 
means  to  help  his  subjects,  yet  an  American,  in  his  "  History 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  13 

of  the  Trade  in  Soldiers  by  German  Princes,"  tries  to  show 
that  the  Elector  of  Hesse  enriched  himself  by  many  millions 
out  of  the  treasury.  The  German  historian  Schlosser, 
with  equal  indifference  to  the  truth,  charges  the  Elector 
with  putting  in  his  own  pocket  the  money  earned  with 
blood  and  wounds  and  life  by  the  brave  Hessians  in  the 
Beven  Years'  War,  and  that  given  as  compensation  for  the 
injury  done  his  country  and  its  capital,  making  no  return  to 
the  poor  sufferers,  and  that  the  American  war  produced  still 
worse  results, — neither  the  English  pay  nor  the  money  for 
/wounds  received  by  the  soldiers  enriched  anybody  but  the 
\  Prince.  This  charge  is  utterly  baseless.  The  fact  is  that 
compensation  for  wounds  was  first  introduced  in  the  wars 
of  Napoleon,  and  the  money  paid  for  dead  and  wounded 
soldiers  under  all  the  treaties  of  the  seventeenth  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries  was  given  as  compensation  for  the  bounty 
lost  by  the  enlisted  men,  and  was  used  for  the  military  hos- 
pitals, and  never  intended  for  the  soldiers.  The  Elector, 
whose  statue  still  stands  in  Cassel,  was  worthy  of  his  great 
ancestors,  and  kept  alive  the  grateful  memory  of  his  and 
their  subjects.  They  have  always  been  free  men,  without 
any  trace  of  bad  government.  Their  conduct  during  the 
\  French  Revolution  showed  their  patriotism. 

After  this  "  Defence"  was  first  published,  it  was  submitted 
to  Mr.  Frederich  Kapp,  the  Prussian  American,  who  had 
attacked  the  Elector  of  Hesse  in  his  books,  and  his  charges 
were  referred  to  the  leading  authority  on  Hessian  history, 
who  fully  refuted  them.  To  further  substantiate  the  char- 
acter of  the  Elector,  reference  is  made  to  the  funeral  ser- 
mon of  the  Free  Masons'  Lodge  of  Cassel  on  the  death  of 
the  noble  prince.  Kapp's  books,  especially  his  "  Soldaten- 
Handel"  [Dealing  in  Soldiers],  are  full  of  sneers  at  him 
and  at  his  son,  and  although  Kapp  disproves  and  discredits 
the  "  Urias" l  letter,  it  is  on  technical  and  not  moral  grounds 
that  he  relieves  the  Elector  of  the  disgraceful  charge  of 
dealing  in  the  blood  and  bones  of  his  subjects  out  of 
avarice.  He  does  not  contradict  Mirabeau's  appeal  to  the 
1  Attributed  by  Mr.  Ford  to  Franklin. 


14  A  Defence,  of  the  Hessians. 

Hessians,  full  as  it  is  of  party  hostility.     Kapp  repeats  the 
'  false  charge  that  the  Elector  made  money  by  false  lists,  so 
as  to  draw  pay  for  more  soldiers  than  were  really  in  service, 
overlooking  the  fact  that  the  annual  and  semi-annual  muster- 
rolls  made  this  impossible.     He  says  the  expenses  of  fitting 
the  soldiers  for  the  field  were  not   paid  by  the  Elector, 
although  the  money  was  taken  from  their  pay.     He  charges 
the  German  princes  whose  soldiers  were  in   the  English 
army  with  cheating  the  contractors  for  supplies.    Hejiccepts 
/  the  apocryphal  story  told  by  Seume  of  the  illegal  violence 
\  with  which  men  were  forced  into  the  service,  yet  in  all  of 
these  and  many  other  matters  Kapp  is  altogether  wrong. 

No  less  an  authority  than  Moser,  the  historian,  long 
ago  pointed  out  that  the  Americans,  with  Franklin  at  their 
head,  had  perjured  themselves.  The  Hessians  wrote  home 
/  their  contempt  for  the  leaders  and  the  people  of  America 
,  from  actual  personal  observation.  From  "Washington  down 
the  greatest  unfairness  was  shown  to  the  "  Loyalists,"  who 
were  driven  into  exile,  stripped  of  all  their  property.  He 
it  was  who  tried  to  tempt  the  Hessians  to  desert,  who  pro- 
posed to  burn  New  York,  who  ordered  the  execution  of 
Andre,  who  wanted  Aspill  [Asgill],  an  entirely  innocent 
man,  put  to  death,  and  connived  at  the  robbery  of  the  Hes- 
sian prisoners  of  their  English  pay,  prevented  their  ex- 
change, and  kept  the  stores  and  clothing  sent  for  them.  In 
Schlozer's  "  Letters"  are  found  the  unfavorable  opinions  of 
the  Americans  written  home  by  Captain  Wagner,  wounded 
at  the  side  of  Count  Donop;  in  Wiederhold's  "Diary, 
Philadelphia  is  described  as  a  "  confluenz  canaillorum, 
as  bad  as  Sodom  and  Gomorrha,  those  who  had  escaped 
the  gallows  in  Europe  being  warmly  welcomed  in  the  New 
World.  Ewald  warned  the  people  of  a  suburb  of  Phila- 
delphia tnat  there  was  no  honor  among  them ;  and  Bauer- 
rneister,  a  British  adjutant-general,  was  equally  emphatic. 
Pfister,  in  his  "  History  of  the  American  Revolutionary 
War,"  gives  many  details  of  the  bad  conduct  of  the  leaders 
and  people  of  the  young  republic. 

Dr.  Kapp's  false  charges  relate  to  (1)  the  enlistment  and 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  15 

service  of  Hessian  troops ;  (2)  the  frauds  practised  on  them 
on  their  discharge ;  (3)  the  approval  by  the  Hessian  Parlia- 
ment of  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain ;  (4)  the  payment 
by  England  of  the  amount  claimed  on  account  of  the 
Seven  Years'  "War;  (5)  the  distribution  of  English  pay 
among  Hessian  soldiers ;  (6)  the  relief  of  Hessian  taxes ; 
(7)  the  charge  that  the  Elector  received  for  troops  enlisted 
in  the  British  service  some  60,000,000  thalers;  (8)  and 
"  blood"  money  for  the  wounded.  Much  of  our  [the  pamph- 
leteer's] information  is  of  a  confidential  kind,  but  there  are 
plenty  of  printed  books,  etc.,  that,  he  says,  bear  him  out — 
biographies  of  the  Elector,  sermons  on  his  death,  by  Raffius, 
Roques,  Rommel,  and  Pfister,  the  resolutions  of  the  Guilds 
on  the  accession  of  his  successor,  all  expressing  grief  for  the 
death  of  his  father;  Schlieffen's  "  Memoirs,"  "Ephemera" 
of  1785,  with  Lith's  "  Campaigns  of  the  Hessians,"  Schlo- 
zer's  "  Correspondence  and  Annals,"  John  Miiller's  "  Let- 
ters," the  "  Military  Library  of  1789,"  Ewald's  "  Life"  in 
Manvillon's  Military  Journal  for  1821,  Pfister's  "North 
American  War  of  Independence,"  Eelking's  "  History,"  the 
Hessian  papers  of  the  time,  the  papers  of  the  Hessian  His- 
torical Society,  v.  Och's  "  Observations,"  Valentini's  "  Rec- 
ollections," "  Debates  of  the  Parliament  of  Hesse,"  the 
treaties  with  England,  the  rewards  and  honors  paid  by  the 
King  of  England  to  German  officers  and  soldiers,  even 
Kapp's  writings.  There  are  many  unpublished  documents, 
diaries  of  officers  and  enlisted  men,  of  pay  and  quarter- 
masters, and  journals  in  the  archives  and  offices  of  Hesse, 
public  and  private. 

Kapp  charges  that  the  Elector  reserved  the  right,  forbid- 
den, it  is  true,  to  his  officers,  of  filling  the  ranks  of  his  regi- 
ments going  to  America  by  compulsory  enlistment,  and  that 
f  his  subjects  fled  to  Hanover  to  escape  it.  Schlieflen  and 
Faucit,  the  former  the  Hessian,  the  latter  the  English  agent, 
and  Suffolk,  the  English  minister  of  war,  had  a  long  cor- 
respondence on  the  subject.  The  answer  to  this  is  that 
Hesse  had  passed  stringent  laws  on  this  subject  as  far  back 
as  1733,  renewed  them  with  increased  penalties  in  1762, 


16  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

and  they  were  enforced  in  one  case  by  punishment  which 
included  loss  of  rank  and  imprisonment  and  exile.     Again, 
1767  and  1773    saw  republication   of  these   regulations. 
I  Losses  by  desertion  or  irregular  discharge  were  so  small 
\  that  only  thirty  out  of  twelve  thousand  were  so  reported, 
j  and  these  cases  all  took  place  near  Hanover,  where  it  was 
\easy  to  take  refuge  and  find  shelter.    Enlistment  of  foreign- 
ers,— that  is,  other  than  the  subjects  of  the  Elector,  who 
were  all  liable  to  be  called  into  service,  was  introduced  by 
him  solely  and  openly  in  order  to  relieve  his  own  people 
and  to  fill  their  places  with  volunteers.    Even  the  desertions 
in  America  were  due   to  the  temptations  offered  by  the 
fruitful  farms  and  the  ease  with  which  the  Hessian  soldier 
was  made  an  American  citizen,  the  husband  of  an  Ameri- 
can wife,  and  the  father  of  American  children.     Captain 
von  der  Lith,  in  a  pamphlet  on  the  "  Campaign  of  the  Hes- 
(  sians  in  America,"  says  the  soldiers  welcomed  the  news  of 
)  the  departure  for  that  land  of  promise.    Lieutenant-Colonel 
/  Grebe  says  that  young  men  left  school  and  college  and  office 
\  and  trade  to  go  to  America  with  the  Hessian  army.    Faucit 
was  surprised  at  the  readiness  with  which  the  men  went  on 
board  ship,  singing  and  hurrahing  for  the  Elector.     He  re- 
ported to  the  Elector  that  he  could  do  anything  with  such 
men.     Some  regiments  did  not  lose  a  single  man.     So,  too, 
with  the  Anspach  troops;    their  Lieutenant-Colonels  von 
Gall  and  von  Kreuzburg  and  other  officers  were  surprised 
at  the  light-hearted  soldiers,  who  acted  as  if  they  were  on 
a  pleasure  tour.    The  Prussian  General  von  Gaudi  wrote  to 
the  Elector  that  by  order  of  his  King  he  had  sent  clever  re- 
cruiting officers  to  try  to  tempt  the  Hessian  soldiers  to  leave 
and  go  into  the  Prussian  service,  but  he  did  not  succeed  in 
getting  a  single  man.    Not  a  Hessian  would  leave  his  colors, 
for  under  them  they  were  satisfied,  got  high  pay,  and  were 
going  to  America.     Another  Prussian,  General  Valentini, 
says  the  Hessian  troops  learned  much  that  was  of  value  in 
their  campaign  in  America,  and  helped  to  renew  the  pros- 
(  perity  of  their  native  country  and  improve  its  condition. 
Prince  Charles  of  Hesse  reported  that  in  the  war  of  the 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  17 

Bavarian  Succession  he  lost  out  of  his  Prussian  division  ten 
thousand  men  in  two  months  by  desertion.  The  Hessian 
army  lost  only  eight  per  cent,  in  ten  years.  It  is  utterly 
untrue  that  when  the  Hessian  troops  were  under  orders  to 
go  to  America,  desertion  by  crowds  fleeing  into  Hungary 
and  Poland  was  prevented  only  by  threatening  the  fathers 
with  chains  and  the  mothers  with  prison,  as  Kapp  seriously 
writes. 

Kapp  says  that  the  Hessian  soldiers  who  returned  home 
at  the  end  of  their  service  received  as  a  reward  half  a 
month's  pay,  but  the  Elector  received  from  England  a  whole 
month's  pay.  Did  he  put  the  other  half  in  his  own  pocket, 
or  did  he  pay  it  all,  as  well  as  the  extra  half  month's  pay 
out  of  his  own  pocket,  over  to  his  soldiers  ?  The  answer 
is,  that  there  is  a  great  difference  between  the  allowance  of 
a  year's  subsidy  after  the  peace  to  the  treasury  of  Hesse 
as  compensation,  and  the  voluntary  gift,  by  the  Elector, 
to  the  foreign  soldiers  who  had  enlisted  in  his  service,  of 
extra  pay  as  reward  for  good  conduct.  They  had  no  claim, 
yet  the  Elector,  following  the  English  custom,  gave  them 
an  extra  allowance  as  compensation,  after  deducting  the  ex- 
pense of  their  equipment  and  clothing.  Kapp  asks  for  ref- 
erence to  any  official  report  of  the  action  of  the  Hessian 
Parliament  in  favor  of  making  an  alliance  with  England 
giving  the  Hessian  troops,  and  urging  the  Elector  to  make 
the  treaty  under  which  this  was  done.  The  answer  is  that 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick  set  the  example,  and  the  Hessian 
Parliament  urged  the  Elector  to  secure  the  payment  of  the 
outstanding  balance  due  for  the  Hessian  forces  serving 
in  the  Seven  Years'  "War,  and  to  do  this  by  a  new  alliance 
with  England,  providing  for  a  Hessian  contingent.  It  was 
Schlieffen,  the  Prime  Minister,  who  in  the  Hessian  Parlia- 
ment urged  the  English  treaty  as  a  means  of  refilling  the 
state  treasury,  so  exhausted  that  it  was  at  the  end  of  its  re- 
sources. The  Elector  hesitated,  but  yielded  to  the  urgent 
wish  of  all  his  ministers  and  the  Parliament.  Abundant 
evidence  is  found  in  the  records  of  the  Hessian  army  an  d 
the  Parliament.  Kapp  asks  what  authority  there  is  for  th  e 


18  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

statement  that,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  American  war,  Eng- 
land owed  Hesse  10,143,286  thalers  arrears  for  subsidies  due 
for  Hessian  troops  serving  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and 
paid  2,220,003  thalers.  Kapp  says  the  English  authorities, 
especially  the  exhaustive  parliamentary  debates,  show  that 
Hesse  claimed  only  £41,820  (278,000  thalers)  for  hospital 
moneys,  which  was  disputed  and  denied  by  England,  until 
in  its  need  of  soldiers  it  agreed  to  pay  it,  although  saying 
that  it  was  a  dishonest  claim  and  had  long  before  been  fully 
satisfied.  The  answer  to  this  is  that  there  were  long  and 
intricate  negotiations  on  this  subject.  The  war,  before  the 
accession  of  Elector  Frederick,  had  left  the  country  bur- 
dened with  a  debt  of  2,559,000  thalers,  which  the  Parliament 
tried  to  meet  by  a  tax  of  fourteen  and  a  half  per  cent.,  but 
the  Elector  reduced  it  so  as  to  relieve  his  poor  people.  In 
1772  England  paid  900,000  thalers  as  compensation,  to  be 
divided  between  the  Elector  and  the  country,  but  the  former 
yielded  any  claim  to  it  and  added  600,000  thalers  out  of  the 
moneys  paid  him  as  subsidy,  so  that  the  treasury  was  en- 
abled to  pay  off'  1,500,000  of  the  debt.  Later  there  was 
paid  a  further  sum  of  2,220,000  thalers,  and  still  later 
672,000  thalers  for  the  people  and  places  on  furnishing 
official  proof  of  special  losses.  This  led  to  a  special  mission 
to  England  and  a  long  discussion  with  the  money-saving 
English  treasury  over  the  claims  for  compensation  which  ran 
up  to  millions.  The  greater  part  was  absolutely  rejected, 
much  reduced  to  a  six  per  cent,  basis,  and  Schlieffen  at  last 
forced  to  accept  £41,820  for  the  actual  outlay  of  300,000 
thalers  for  hospital  expenses.  No  doubt  the  foundation  of 
/  the  large  savings  of  the  Hessian  state  treasury  and  of  the 
Elector  was  the  money  obtained  as  subsidy  for  the  Ameri- 
can war.  The  Elector  raised  his  country  from  poverty  by 
using  this  money  for  the  improvement  of  his  capital  and  its 
great  neighboring  palace,  for  royal  roads,  for  parks  and 
open  places,  for  churches,  museums,  lyceums,  and  semin- 
aries, theatres,  city  halls,  hospitals,  art  galleries,  and  schools, 
medical  colleges,  infants'  and  orphans'  homes,  libraries,  and 
the  two  universities,  Marburg  and  Rinteln,  for  opera  and 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  19 

chapel.  The  source  of  all  this  expenditure  was  of  course  the 
English  subsidies.  The  charge  that  the  Elector  had  laid  aside 
56,000,000  as  his  private  fortune  is  clearly  disproved  by  the 
fact  that  in  1831  the  whole  estate  of  the  Elector  amounted 
to  only  14,000,000  to  16,000,000,  although  Kapp  says  the 
Elector  Frederick  left  60,000,000,  mostly  subsidy  money, 
but  partly  profit  on  lotteries,  yet  the  official  records  show 
that  during  the  fourteen  years  of  the  lottery  the  whole  profit 
was  only  93,000  thalers.  The  accounts  show  that  in  1775 
the  treasury  had  to  its  credit  in  all  4,549,925  thalers,  much 
in  doubtful  claims  growing  out  of  the  earlier  wars,  and,  in 
1785,  at  the  death  of  Elector  Frederick,  it  had  12,473,000 
thalers.  In  other  words,  after  the  Seven  Years'  War  this 
little  country  of  300,000  people  earned  an  average  of 
1,000,000  thalers  a  year  by  subsidies,  and  by  the  American 
war  it  was  enabled  to  save  18,000,000,  out  of  which  much 
was  spent  in  public  improvements.  England  was  very  slow 
to  admit  its  liability  for  the  losses  inflicted  on  Hesse  as  its 
ally  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  but  it  soon  learned  to  value 
and  pay  generously  for  its  help  in  supplying  a  fine  body  of 
troops  for  its  American  war. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  American  war  England  owed 
Hesse  10,143,286  thalers  in  arrears  for  its  services  since 
1764,  of  which  2,559,000  was  due  in  1760,  making  the  total 
Hessian  debt  on  the  former  date  7,425,965  thalers.  Eng- 
land paid  900,000  thalers  first,  and  later  on  2,220,000 
thalers,  and  Hesse  still  claimed  £41,820  for  hospital  ex- 
penses; but  there  was  still  due  to  Hesse  3,128,000  thalers 
for  its  increased  debt,  and  300,000  for  losses  by  fire  and 
the  sword,  and  150,000  for  local  expenditures,  and  914,772 
for  the  expenses  of  the  Hessian  army. 

Mr.  Kapp  says  it  is  claimed  that  the  Elector  paid  his 
troops  the  full  English  pay,  but  his  authorities  show  that 
they  got  only  three-fourths  of  it,  although  he  had  promised 
Suffolk  not  to  reduce  it  to  one-half  in  the  American  war,  as 
he  had  done  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  He  certainly  broke 
faith  by  a  reduction  of  even  a  quarter.  That  the  Hessian 
soldiers  did  receive  the  full  English  pay  is  attested  by  the 


20  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

treaties  with  England  and  by  the  moral  honesty  of  the  Hes- 
sian Elector.     The  fact  was  attested  at  the  time  by  daily 
/  experience,  and  cannot  be  contradicted  by  a  perjured  sol- 
dier, for  the  rate  of  pay  was  better  for  the  Hessian  than  for 
I  the  English  soldiers,  and  they  knew  it  too  well  to  be  put  ofi 
(  with  anything  less  than  the  full  amount.     The  regular  pay 
was  increased  by  regular  additions  for  winter  clothing,  food, 
lodgings,  baggage,  forage,  and  other  such  expenses,  while 
both  English  and  Hessian  soldiers  were  supplied  free  of 
cost  with  wood,  etc.,  and  divided  fairly  all  booty.     The 
proportionate  charges  for  arms,  etc.,  were  higher  in  the 
English  than  in  the  Hessian  army,  but  as  compensation 
each  man  of  the  yager  regiment  was  given  extra  pay  of  £1 
a  month. 

The  English  troops  in  Gibraltar  began  their  pay  with 
£1  95.  for  the  sergeants,  the  Hessian  troops  with  £1  145. 
The  general  officers  alike  received  £59,  while  the  Hessian 
company  commander's  pay  was  increased  from  £13  to  £19 
by  special  allowances.  The  second  lieutenant  in  the  Eng- 
lish service  got  £5  25.,  the  Hessian  one  shilling  more,  and 
in  addition  there  were  extra  monthly  allowances — for  lieu- 
tenants 8  thalers,  for  captains  32  thalers,  for  generals  180 
thalers.  The  higher  officers  retained  their  Hessian  rank 
with  its  pay.  The  Hessian  commander-in-chief  drew  his 
English  monthly  pay  of  £121  and  the  Hessian  pay  of  £182. 
Captain  Ewald,  of  the  famous  yagers,  is  on  record  as  noti- 
fying his  company  commanders  that  their  pay  was  a  guinea 
a  day  in  addition  to  their  share  of  booty.  For  provisions 
got  in  the  country  where  the  troops  were  serving  there  was 
no  charge.  The  yagers  received  each  twenty  English  shil- 
lings' worth  a  month  and  his  side  arms ;  the  line1  soldier, 
twelve  and  a  half  shillings.  There  never  was  an  army  so 
well  paid  as  the  Hessians  in  the  English  service  in  America. 
A  married  subaltern  could  support  his  family  at  home  and 
live  well.  Ewald  says  the  company  commanders  did  this 
and  saved  money  besides.  Even  the  enlisted  men  saved 
sums  reported  at  170  and  300  and  525  and  even  700  thalers. 
The  pay  department  showed  that  thirty  staff  officers  and  six 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  21 

captains  saved  106,350  thalers.  The  highest  savings'  report 
shows  that  four  colonels  had  24,000  thalers,  two  others  had 
26,800  thalers,  and  the  two  last  Hessian  commanders  had, 
between  1781  and  1784,  11,000  and  15,000  thalers  to  their 
credit.  General  von  Mirbach  sent  home  during  the  first 
sixteen  months  of  his  service  in  America  savings  to  the 
amount  of  6000  thalers.  Indeed,  the  older  officers  left  at 
home  complained  bitterly  of  their  hard  fate  in  losing  this  ad- 
vantage, and  the  total  gain  of  the  Hessian  troops  from  extra 
English  allowances  may  well  be  estimated  at  more  than 
2,000,000  thalers.  Schliefien  reported  to  the  Elector  in 
1779  that  up  to  that  time,  about  three  and  a  half  years  from 
the  outbreak  of  the  American  war,  the  Hessian  enlisted 
men  had  sent  home  through  the  pay  officer  almost  600,000 
thalers,  and  the  mechanics  accompanying  the  Hessian  army 
to  America  over  637,000  thalers.  Kapp's  book  is  full  of 
rumors  that  the  Hessian  troops  in  America  were  unfairly 
treated,  but  that  is  absolutely  untrue. 

/  The  English  government  dealt  directly  with  the  Hessian 
|  government;  the  Hessian  soldiers  fought  alongside  the 
English  soldiers  as  their  allies ;  their  pay  was  regulated  by 
\  the  treaties  made  by  the  Hessian  sovereign  and  approved  by 
•  the  Hessian  Parliament.  These  provided  fully  for  the  pay 
and  food  and  equipment  and  care  of  the  Hessian  troops  at 
the  expense  of  England,  but  on  the  basis  provided  by  the 
treaties  with  Hesse  and  other  allies.  Mr.  Kapp  asks  for  par- 
ticulars of  the  taxes  released  by  the  Elector.  These  amounted 
to  2,170,140  thalers,  besides  56,000  thalers  in  the  reduced 
interest  on  loans  to  public  institutions, — the  reduction  of 
allowances  to  Hessian  princesses  of  159,466  thalers,  and  a 
reduction  of  war  taxes  of  204,000  thalers.  Appropriations 
for  the  relief  of  the  people  injured  by  storms  amounted  to 
anywhere  between  500  and  740,000  thalers;  then  there 
were  paid  for  forage  147,000  thalers,  for  servants  90,000 
thalers,  and  for  arrears  of  1,090,827  down  to  1785,  300,000 
were  allowed  and  cancelled,  and  a  debt  of  116,000  for  the 
administration  was  paid. 

Mr.  Kapp  denies  that  he  charged  the  Elector  with  putting 


22  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

60,000,000  in  his  pocket,  for  the  whole  amount  received 
by  him  for  his  troops  was  only  22,000,000.  This  charge  is 
found  in  the  writings  of  Vehse,  Loher,  Menzel,  Scherr, 
"Weber,  and  others  who  have  tried  to  discredit  the  Elector 
Frederick.  Kapp  does  say  that  the  Elector  left  an  estate  of 
60,000,000,— made  partly  out  of  the  profits  of  the  lottery 
founded  in  1777,  but  mainly  out  of  the  American  war. 
But  the  lottery  only  earned  in  all  the  fourteen  years  of  its 
existence  93,000  thalers,  which  were  paid  over  to  the  War 
Office;  the  only  other  source  was  the  sale  of  soldiers  to 
England. 

Kapp  says  that  pay  for  wounded  soldiers  began  in  the 
treaty  with  Brunswick  in  1776,  although  it  was  implied  in 
the  Hessian  treaty  at  the  time  of  the  war  of  the  Spanish  Suc- 
cession that  three  wounded  men  counted  the  same  as  one 
dead  man,  at  about  51  thalers  at  modern  rates.  It  is  true 
that  there  were  such  provisions  in  the  earlier  Brunswick 
and  Hanau  Treaties,  but  Schlieffen  had  them  struck  out  of 
the  new  Hessian  Treaty  of  1775.  Dead  men  were  replaced 
by  living  men  and  the  injured  and  disabled  by  well  men, 
while  the  latter  went  into  the  Invalid  Corps  and  were  duly 
cared  and  provided  for. 

The  contemporary  accusations  are  perpetuated  by  Schlos- 
ser,  who  says  in  his  history  that  England  paid  a  premium 
that  went  into  the  Elector's  pocket  for  every  limb  that  was 
lost, — and  this  is  absolutely  false.  The  Elector  to  the  last 
day  of  his  life  made  provision  for  the  disabled  soldiers. 
Such  charges  are  made  by  Germans  who  ought  to  go  to  the 
Hessian  archives  and  there  find  the  truth.  A  fair  statement 
ought  to  satisfy  the  modern  reader  that  the  great  majority 
of  American  citizens  of  our  own  day  have  little  in  common 
with  the  perjured  Yankees  of  the  Revolution,  and  are,  in- 
deed, descendants  of  the  men  who  fought  against,  rather 
than  of  those  who  fought  for  independence.  The  rebels 
turned  against  England  and  denounced  it  as  a  tyrant, 
although  to  it  America  owed  Magna  Charta  and  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act.  The  treatment  of  the  Indians  by  American 
governments  shows  how  far  they  departed  from  the  example 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  23 

of  the  mother  country.  The  English  Whigs  in  and  out  of 
Parliament  were  allowed  a  license  and  freedom  of  speech 
which  were  denied  the  American  Tories  by  their  brethren 
who  proclaimed  liberty.  The  Hessians  had  for  two  hun- 
dred years  been  allies  of  England  and  naturally  helped  it 
against  the  hostility  of  France  and  Spain.  Hessians  fought 
at  the  side  of  English  troops  against  Louis  XIV.  of  France, 
and  helped  to  put  down  the  Stuart  rising  in  Scotland,  and  in 
the  Seven  Years'  War ;  the  American  Revolution  was  but 
another  outbreak  of  the  same  hostility  to  England,  and  if 
Hessian  troops  had  not  served  in  America,  it  would  have 
been  a  missing  link  in  the  chain  of  the  wise,  real  German 
policy  of  close  alliance  with  old  England.  The  story  of 
the  American  Revolution  that  ended  in  the  independence 
of  the  American  Colonies  is  largely  drawn  from  French 
writers,  yet  they  never  seem  to  regret  their  own  loss  of 
Canada.  American  writers  attack  the  German  allies  of  Eng- 
land, forgetting  or  ignoring  the  fact  that  this  was  jio  new 
relation,  but  one  that  had  existed  for  two  centuries,  and  that 
England  and  all  European  states  paid  for  the  foreign  troops 
in  their  service.  The  Yankees,  used  to  making  money  by 
hook  and  crook,  could  not  but  look  on  the  subsidies  pro- 
vided by  regular  treaties  as  a  sale  and  bargain  of  the  soldiers 
of  one  country  to  another  which  paid  for  them  at  so  much 
a  head.  The  Yankee  fairy  stories  about  the  superiority  of 
their  native  troops  may  be  easily  answered,  for  the  famous 
Virginia  cavalry  were  completely  defeated  and  driven  from 
the  field  by  Hessian  foot  yagers,  mounted  for  the  occasion, 
and  not  cavalry  at  all.  In  good  old  times  no  German  wrould 
have  falsified  the  facts  as  to  his  own  countrymen  when  he 
could  have  verified  them  from  the  official  records.  These 
I  show  that  at  one  time  it  was  proposed  to  surrender  the  sub- 
sidies in  exchange  for  a  large  stretch  of  land  in  Canada, 
where  a  Hessian  settlement  was  to  be  established.  If  that 
had  been  carried  out,  Hesse  might  have  been  spared  the 
sorrows  of  1806  and  1866. 

For  many  years  all  of  the  charges  discreditable  to  the 
Hessians  have  been  drawn  from  the  "  Autobiography"  of 


24  A  Defence  of  the  Hessiam. 

Seume.  Much  of  it  was  invented  by  his  friend  and  editor 
Clodius.  It  is  frombeginning  to  end  a  false  and  libellous 
production.  Seume  became  a  friend  and  acTmTrefoT  the 
Trench  Tacobins  and  repented  his  service  against  the  Yan- 
kees, so  he  invented  the  story  that  he  had  been  forced  into 
the  ranks  against  his  will.  The  fact  is  that  no  such  com- 
pulsion could  have  been  exercised  in  the  face  of  the  orders 
of  the  Elector,  nor  could  any  young  man  of  Seume's  intelli- 
gence have  failed  to  know  and  exercise  his  rights. 

Seume  tells  another  falsehood  in  reference  to  affairs  at 
Ziegenhain.  There  was  a  garrison  at  that  place  of  two 
companies  of  infantry  and  some  artillerymen,  and  four 
hundred  recruits,  part  of  the  Eighth  Division,  on  its  way 
from  Cassel  to  America,  and  a  handful  of  yagers  under 
instruction.  Some  of  the  recruits  planned  a  mutiny,  and 
intended  to  kill  a  sentry  and  steal  the  regimental  funds. 
Their  plan  was  discovered  and  reported  by  one  of  the 
yagers.  A  court-martial  sentenced  two  of  the  mutineers 
to  the  gallows  and  others  to  chains.  Elector  Frederick, 
whose  weak  point  was  kindness,  reduced  the  sentence  of  a 
dozen  ^>f  the  offenders  to  whipping,  and  that  of  the  men 
sentenced  to  be  hung  to  imprisonment.  This  is  record  evi- 
dence, yet  Seume  says  there  were  fifteen  hundred  recruits 
who  were  all  at  once  charged  with  intending  to  rob  and  run 
away,  among  them  old  service  men.  Some  of  them  had  been 
sergeants  and  corporals  in  the  Prussian  army,  yet  Seume, 
nineteen  years  old  and  who  had  never  carried  a  musket, 
\was  chosen  robber  captain.  A  worthless  tailor  from  Got- 
tingen  betrayed  the  plot  rather  than  help  carry  the  plunder 
to  the  next  village.  The  Elector  did  show  mercy  to  some, 
but  only  to  enjoy  the  protracted  misery  of  the  men  in  jail. 
Now,  if  Seume  knew  of  any  such  plot,  he  perjured  himself 
by  violating  his  oath  in  failing  to  report  the  fact. 

In  May,  1782,  he  says  there  was  an  outbreak  among  the 
troops  at  Cassel.  A  body  of  recruits  from  Ziegenhain  was 
increased  by  an  equal  number  from  the  then  Hessian  for- 
tress at  Rheinfels,  all  on  their  way  to  America.  At  that  time 
there  were  complaints  of  the  poor  quality  of  the  recruits 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  25 

sent  to  the  Hessian  regiments  serving  in  America,  where 
the  war  had  been  going  on  from  1776.  These  new  recruits 
were  worn-out  old  soldiers  and  mere  tramps,  tempted  by 
the  large  bounty  offered  by  the  American  recruiting 
officers  and  the  high  wages  promised  by  Pennsylvania 
farmers.  They  were  a  discredit  to  the  old  Hessian  regi- 
ments with  their  faithful  soldiers,  sons  of  the  soil.  But  the 
Elector  took  these  strangers  in  order  to  relieve  his  own 
people  of  the  stress  and  burden  of  the  war.  To  satisfy 
himself,  he  inspected  these  new  recruits  and  told  them  that 
any  man  who  wanted  his  discharge  could  have  it  on  return- 
ing the  clothing  and  money  given  him.  Seume  could  have 
had  his  release  then  if  he  had  asked  for  it,  but  he  stayed  by 
the  colors.  Then  the  troops  were  sent  to  the  port  of  em- 
barcation, — at  Bremerlehe,  not  at  Miinden,  as  Seume  says. 
The  recruits  were  transferred  to  General  Faucit,  of  the 
English  army,  and  put  on  English  transports.  Seume 
says  that  he  said  at  Rinteln,  on  the  way,  that  he  was  a 
Prussian  subject,  and  was  afraid  that  at  Miiuden  he  would 
be  recognized,  and,  as  it  was  Prussian  territory,  he  would  be 
arrested,  and  he  therefore  asked  to  be  allowed  to  march  by 
another  route.  Why  was  he  so  much  afraid  of  the  Prus- 
sians? Presumably  because  there  was  a  warrant  out  for 
his  arrest  for  some  violation  of  law  while  he  was  a  student 
at  Leipsic.  As  to  his  account  of  his  voyage,  it  is  taken 
almost  word  for  word  from  the  diary  of  a  Waldeck  corporal, 
Steuernagel,  who  had  six  years  earlier  made  the  journey  to 
India  and  America,  and  was  a  great  story-teller. 

The  official  reports  of  Colonel  Hatzfeld,  in  command  of 
the  detachment  to  which  Seume  belonged,  and  of  Commis- 
sary Harnier,  contain  the  real  facts.  The  squadron  con- 
sisted of  six  vessels  for  the  Hessian  recruits,  two  transports 
for  freight,  and  eight  more  troop-ships,  and  two  more  with 
stores,  and  three  frigates  as  convoy.  The  names  of  the 
ships  and  the  directions  as  to  the  care  and  food  of  the  men 
are  all  recorded.  There  were  over  one  thousand  men  and  a 
great  number  of  women,  wives  of  the  soldiers  with  their 
children,  all  part  of  the  Hessian  force, — this  was  the  ninth 


26  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

year  of  the  war  and  the  eighth  and  last  detachment.  Next 
in  command  to  Colonel  Hatzfeld  was  Major  von  Priischenk ; 
of  captains,  lieutenants,  and  ensigns  there  were  ten, — among 
them  two  Miinchhausens.  The  younger  one  took  a  friendly 
interest  in  Corporal  Seume  at  Halifax.  The  fleet  left  the 
Weser  on  June  9  and  10, 1782,  and  the  landing  at  Halifax, 
in  spite  of  storms  and  fog  and  French  men-of-war,  was  made 
on  August  13  without  any  noteworthy  incident,  according  to 
the  official  reports.  Seume,  however,  made  the  voyage  last 
twentvj4w_g_weeks,  when  in  fact  that  is  thirteen_w_eeks  longer 
than  it  actually  lasted,  and  he  declares  they  never  sighted 
land  nor  got  fresh  food,  yet  there  was  no  unusual  death-rate, 
although  Steuernagel  complains  of  the  close  quarters  in  the 
over-crowded  ships.  On  August  19  Colonel  Hatzfeld  in- 
spected the  men  with  a  view  to  distributing  the  recruits  in 
the  companies  and  regiments  for  which  they  were  needed, 
and  not  a  man  was  missing  from  the  lists  made  out  when 
the  men  embarked  and  when  they  disembarked.  Just  about 
as  true  is  Seume's  account  of  the  return  voyage,  which  took 
twenty-three  days  to  England  and  forty  to  the  German 
port  of  Cuxhaven.  Seume  had  a  very  comfortable  time  in 
America,  thanks  to  the  help  of  Lieutenant  von  Munch- 
\hausen.  He  might  have  become  a  Hessian  officer,  and  yet 
he  says  it  was  difficult  for  any  one  not  a  nobleman  to  get  a 
\  commission.  A  glance  at  the  Hessian  army  list  shows  that 
/this  was  not  true,  for  a  large  proportion  of  the  officers  were 
Aplain  citizens,  not  of  noble  families.  At  this  very  time 
/Frederick  of  Prussia  said  publicly  that  plain  citizens  had 
)  not  the  proper  feeling  of  honor  necessary  to  make  good 
\officers.  Seume's  own  colonel,  Hatzfeld,  and  Huth,  Rail, 
Kellermann,  Ewald,  all  men  of  note  and  high  command,  were 
not  nobles,  but  plain  citizens.  Seume's  whole  service  as  a 
Hessian  soldier  was  only  for  two  years.  During  this  time 
he  rose  from  the  ranks  to  corporal,  then  to  quarter-master, 
and  finally  to  sergeant,  and  as  he  took  his  discharge  in  that 
grade,  his  complaints  are  much  more  discreditable  than  if 
he  had  remained  in  the  ranks, — he  perjured  himself  trebly 
by  deserting.  Why  did  he  desert  ?  When  the  returning 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  27 

troops  landed  at  Breraerlehe  they  heard  that  the  soldiers 
who  were  not  natives  of  Hesse  must  either  re-enlist  or  be 
discharged  with  half  a  mouth's  pay.  The  Hessian  soldiers, 
of  course,  returned  to  the  pay  and  allowances  of  the  peace 
footing. 

He'ssian  soldiers  were  so  well  treated  that  in  the  last  cen- 
tury there  was  no  other  army  with  so  few  deserters.  Why, 
then,  did  Seume  desert  ?  Why,  eiglr^days  before  the  return 
to  Cassel,  did  he  throw  away  his  good  name  and  his  pay  and 
liis  property?  Because  in  a  fit  of  drunkenness  he  had 
made  himself  liable  to  sharp  punishment  for  his  neglect  of 
duty  as  commissary  sergeant,  and  for  fear  of  the  conse- 
quences he  fled.  In  ordinary  conditions  he  would  never 
have  abandoned  the  Hessian  colors.  He  makes  his  fault 
worse  by  lying, — pretending  that  he  and  others  enlisted 
from  Prussian  territory  were  afraid  that  they  would  be  re- 
turned to  Prussia  and  be  forced  to  the  hard  service  in  its 
ranks,  and  this  he  says  although  he  knew  perfectly  well  that 
there  was  an  order  published  at  Bremerlehe  which  was  per- 
fect protection  for  him  and  men  in  exactly  his  position. 
Having  told  one  falsehood  as  to  his  reason  for  deserting,  he 
adds  another  to  justify  the  first,  and  thus  puts  himself  clearly 
beyond  the  pale  of  credit  for  any  of  his  statements.  He 
wants  Jo  pose  as  a  martyr,  and  to  do  so  vamps  up  unfounded 
charges  again st^ffieTETector  of  Hesse. 

I     Between  1783  and  1810  Seume  thought  it  more  to  his 
|   credit  to  try  to  forget  and  make  others  forget  that  he  volun- 
tarily entered  the  Hessian  service,  and  pretended  that  he  had 
been  forced  into  it,  as  a  palliation  for  serving  against  the 
Yankees,  and  boasted  of  his  desertion,  as  if  that,  too,  was 
!  to  his  credit.     He  pretends  to  give  the  replies  he — an  utterly 
unknown,  unimportant  enlisted  man — made  to  captains,  col- 
onels, and  generals.     Any  such  answer  would  soon  have 
brought  down  the  punishment  prescribed  by  the  articles  of 
war  for  insubordination. 

(In  later  life  Seume  paid  dearly  for  the  sins  of  his  youth, 
— and  he  did  not  atone  for  them  by  publishing  his  own  auto- 
biography. He  had  no  reason  to  find  fault  with  the  Hessian 


28  A  Defence  of  the  Hessians. 

service ;  it  was  only  after  he  had  left  it  that  his  real  troubles 
began.  It  is  well  known  how  Prussia  for  eighty  years 
tyrannized  over  Northern  Germany,  weighing  heavily  on 
its  overburdened  people,  threatening  them  until  Hanover, 
Brunswick,  Hesse,  Saxony,  and  Poland  were  all  forced  to 
forbid  its  enlistment  of  men  within  their  borders.  It  was 
during  these  trying  times  that  Seume  was  taken  by  ibxce  to 
Emden,  in  East  Prussia,  and  there  put  into  a  Prussian  reg- 
iment jas  a  common  soldier.  Twice  he  deserted^— once 
when  he  was  on  duty  as  a  sentry, — and  he  was  condemned 
by  court-martial  to  the  awful  penalty  of  running  the  gaunt- 
let, the  whipping  by  a  whole  line  of  soldiers/^ETelJscaped, 
finally,  by  violating  his  parole.  In  his  Prussian  uniform  he 
paid  the  penalty  for  the  oath  to  the  Hessian  flag  which  he 


(  had  broken  first. 

NOTE. — This  pamphlet  is  a  disguised  attack  on  the  Prus- 
.sia  of  1866  for  seizing  and  holding  Hesse-Cassel,  along 
with  Hanover  and  Brunswick,  as  part  of  its  own  kingdom, 
driving  the  Elector  of  Cassel  and  the  King  of  Hanover  into 
exile.  The  author  is  clearly  a  champion  of  the  lost  cause, 
and  seeks  to  justify  it  by  rewriting  the  history  of  Hesse 
;ind  Prussia  of  a  hundred  years  before.  He  aims  at  elevat- 
ing the  claims  of  the  Hessian  electoral  family  in  the  eyes 
of  their  former  subjects  and  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  in 
depreciating  the  part  taken  by  Prussia  both  at  the  time  of 
the  American  "War  of  Independence  and  in  enlarging  its 
own  borders  and  increasing  its  power  at  the  expense  of  the 
small  sovereign  states  of  Germany,  whose  princes  opposed 
the  aggression  of  Prussia  and  its  claim  to  control  the  whole 
of  Germany.  It  was  the  beginning  of  that  series  of  ad- 
vances which  culminated  in  the  establishment  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  as  the  outcome  of  the  war  with  France  in 
1870.  Having  crushed  out  all  opposition  within  and  near 
its  borders,  having  driven  the  Elector  of  Hesse  away  and 
forced  the  King  of  Hanover  into  a  hopeless  resistance, 
Prussia  granted  its  permission  to  Baden  and  Bavaria  and 
Hesse-Darmstadt  and  Wurtemberg  and  Saxony  and  Weimar 


A  Defence  of  the  Hessians.  29 

and  a  few  petty  local  princes  to  live  on  just  as  long  as  its 
own  supremacy  was  recognized  and  extended.  The  Franco- 
German  "War  consolidated  the  power  of  Prussia,  and  its 
king  became  the  German  emperor.  Naturally  the  exiled 
sovereigns  had  friends,  and  they  sought  to  make  their 
claims  known.  A  former  Hanoverian  Prime  Minister 
wrote  novels  in  which  the  kind  King  of  Hanover  and  his 
allies  figured  in  most  heroic  guise.  The  friend  of  the 
exiled  Elector  of  Cassel  defended  his  prince  by  showing 
/  the  real  nature  of  the  alliance  between  Hesse-Cassel  and 
I  England  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  thus  throwing  on  Prus- 
jsia  the  burden  of  the  responsibility  of  driving  away  a  prince 
whose  ancestors  had  done  great  service  to  his  people.  For 
American  students  of  history  this  pamphlet  has  a  certain 
value  and  interest  as  throwing  a  new  light  on  part  of  our 
own  history,  and  as  showing  that  there  is  justification  for 
the  Hessians  in  their  alliance  with  Great  Britain  and  in 
their  service  in  this  country  in  the  resistance  made  by  the 
mother  country  to  the  claim  of  the  colonies  to  indepen- 
dence. The  successful  outcome  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion made  it  difficult  to  secure  a  patient  hearing  of  the 
other  side.  Even  at  this  late  day,  therefore,  the  foregoing 
abstract  of  the  "  Defence  of  the  Hessians"  may  not  be  with- 
out value  and  interest.  The  authorship  of  the  pamphlet  is 
not  as  yet  made  public,  but  it  is  evidently  the  work  of  a 
man  loyal  to  the  Elector  of  Hesse-Cassel  and  earnest  in 
defending  his  ancestors. — J.  G.  R. 


9  3  4  0  8 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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